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In my data set, each individual has two properties, a and b. It seems that a + b is close to 10. Which statistic method could I use to test if this is true?

I really appreciate your help!

 Person a   b
    1   2   8
    2   2   9
    3   3   7
    4   2   8
    5   4   6
    6   2   8
    7   4   6
    8   2   9
    9   2   8
    10  5   5
Kevin
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  • "a+b close to some constant" is equivalent to testing whether $a$, $b$, and a constant (nonzero) vector are linearly dependent. Thus, your question is a special case of https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/16327/testing-for-linear-dependence-among-the-columns-of-a-matrix. However, it is such a straightforward problem that it admits other solutions not applicable in that thread. – whuber Mar 07 '18 at 22:22

1 Answers1

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Create a third column a+b:

10
11
10
10
10
10
10
11
10
10

Get the mean and standard deviation: $\mu=10.2$ and $\sigma=0.42$

Test whether the mean is far from 10: t-stat$: \frac{10.2-10}{0.42/\sqrt{10}}=1.5$

Since t-statistic is lower than the critical value at 95%, then we conclude that it may indeed be 10, the sum of two columns.

Aksakal
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  • Thank you! Just figured out that this question is a simple One Sample T Test. Here is the [link](http://www.statisticshowto.com/one-sample-t-test/) for more details in case other people would be interested in. – Kevin Mar 08 '18 at 17:53
  • yes, I forgot to divide by $\sqrt n$, corrected – Aksakal Mar 08 '18 at 20:00